


Three (One hundred words six times)

by crazylittleelf



Series: Fallen [2]
Category: Fringe
Genre: Angst, Dark, Death, Drabble Sequence, F/M, Hallucinations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-02
Updated: 2009-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-02 22:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crazylittleelf/pseuds/crazylittleelf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter's mind is a crowded place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three (One hundred words six times)

_\---one_

Olivia shows up at her own funeral, tilting her head quizzically at the casket.  “I'm not in there, you know.” 

She's dressed like she had been that last night, lacking only the pallor and the gunshot wound.  She feels warm and real as she leans into him, craning her neck to get a better view around Broyles.  He had been expecting her but the degree to which she is present is frightening.

At the time he thinks he covers the urge to run screaming remarkably well, but the worried looks he gets later from Charlie and Astrid certainly indicate otherwise. 

_\---two_

He fully expects to be cut loose after returning from Cairo. 

Truthfully he expects to be arrested after returning from Cairo, but Broyles merely hands him a thick stack of files and asks that they be given to Walter.  Told in a dry monotone to report in every few days and call if they need anything.  Too stunned to reply, he'd nods and goes to the hotel to collect the good doctor. 

It's remarkably easy to continue the work.  He rages silently at how easily her loss is mitigated and feels a clawing panic at his own role as replacement.

_\---three_

Fantasizing about her when she was alive was one thing; this is a new level of disturbing. 

“Does this...”  He waves his hand towards the tangled sheets, “bother you?”

“Why would it?”

“I didn't know if it would, since we never hooked up when you were alive and now that you're dead...”

She glares at him and disappears when he blinks.  She doesn't like being reminded that she's dead.  But she's not real and Peter knows that he doesn't like being reminded that she's dead and the phantom he summons doesn't like to remember because he doesn't like to remember.

_\---four_

Peter is trying to work and Olivia is trying to irritate Peter. 

Removed from the structure of her life she is obnoxiously mischievous.  She's thumping one heel against the filing cabinet and he's trying to will her back to whatever corner of his mind she occupies when she isn't bugging the crap out of him when she gasps.  He spins towards the door, trying to work out what would scare an imaginary ghost. 

“No.  Nononono.”  He rubs at his eyes, but it doesn't help with John anymore than it does with Olivia.   “You can't be here.  It's too crowded already.”  
_  
\---five_

The two of them are quarreling over the remote like children.  He curls onto his side.  He's spent his life deliberately isolating himself and this latest insult from his traitorous mind is appalling.  If they don't stop soon Peter's going to start shooting and see how real his mind is making them today.

He rolls over and roars at them.  “Shut.  Up.  Can you shut up for five minutes?  What is wrong with you today?”

Olivia blinks owlishly at him and John scowls.  “Don't yell at her, Bishop.”

He grabs the remote away from them and stalks towards the bathroom.

_\---six_

He watches Walter closely now, as if he can find clues for how to deal with this acquired insanity.  The old man's no help, though.  He's learned to keep his secrets well, refusing to share even with his own blood.

Peter slips up more often than he'd like.  Wrong verb tense, wrong time frame.  Memories that are not his own crouching on the shelves of his mind with the rest of his life, sly impostors barely noticed. 

Walter knows, that much he can tell.  The old man stays silent on this matter, too, and for that Peter is eternally grateful.


End file.
